3 Must-Haves to Reduce Silos & Build Collaboration Between Docs
By Karen Holzberger – While at RSNA15, a few major themes emerged around reducing silos and building collaboration between care teams. Here are three ways to accomplish this.
Read MoreArticles by Industry Expert
2015 In Review
By John Halamka MD – It’s now December and as each year ends, I always look back on the challenges and achievements of the past 12 months. Here’s my sense of 2015.
Continuing the Shift from Volume to Results in American Healthcare
By Dr. Patrick Conway – Almost a year ago, the Administration announced a vision for the future of the Medicare program, including clear goals and a timeline for shifting Medicare payments from volume to value. CMS is continually working to turn this vision into reality through annual rulemaking and the CMS Innovation Center, building on bipartisan ideas, initiatives and legislation from both Congress and the states.
How Do We Achieve Coordinated Health Care?
By Robert Rowley MD – A recent study of healthcare organizations showed that most are not prepared to deliver standardized longitudinal care across multiple provider systems. Shared care plans will be the centerpiece of coordinated care delivery, incentivized by the move from fee-for-service to value-based care.
AHRQ Touts EHRs, But is There Any Data?
By William A. Hyman – A recent press release and report from AHRQ asserts that 87,000 lives and nearly $20 billion in costs have been saved as a result of safety improvements. This reduction in hospital-aquired conditions (HAC) is said to be “thanks in part to provisions of the Affordable Care Act”, and Medicare incentives.
Conversations About Coordinated Care in Rural Arkansas
By Dr. Gary Bevill & William Taunton – Initially a four-doctor practice, SAMA Healthcare Services is breaking ground in coordinated, patient-centered health care in rural El Dorado, Arkansas. Although SAMA doctors had known early on that this is how they wanted to practice medicine, they could do only so much until they got support from the Comprehensive Primary Care (CPC) initiative of the Center for Medicare & Medicaid Innovation, an Affordable Care Act program. Dr. Gary Bevill and SAMA patient William Taunton recently talked about the initiative.
What to Do with Health Data
By Matt Fisher – A Shakespearean Tangle: The current state of medical data is very complicated. The amount of medical data being created is exploding all of the time. The explosion is being facilitated by the always increasing number of ways of creating it and a broadening array of people or entities how want access to it.
Provider Mergers: Will Patients Get Higher Quality or Higher Costs?
By Eric C. Schneider MD – Proposed mergers among four of the nation’s largest health insurance companies have drawn media and policy attention. Critics see higher premiums ahead as insurers no longer have to compete with one another. Advocates believe mergers can neutralize the price increases generated by a less visible merger.
Interoperability — Don’t Get Crushed by the Chaos
By Michelle Schneider – Interoperability is one of those words that conjures up very different visuals for each of us. Paper cups attached by string, the WiFi router in your home, the towers and satellites that allow your text to be sent across the world in milliseconds, and the NASA space station, are all examples of interoperability.